Offshore Wind Wire

The Long Island – New York City Offshore Wind Collaborative announced last week that it would issue a request for proposals in the spring of 2010.

The collaborative is planning a 350 megawatt wind farm about 13 miles off the Rockaway Peninsula, a part of Long Island located in New York City.  The project is designed to eventually expand to 700 megawatts of capacity.  This week, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave the project a vote of confidence while touring an offshore wind farm in Denmark.

“I don’t understand what there is to complain about … it’s very impressive,” Bloomberg said of the Danish facility, according to comments posted on the New York Times Web site.  “It gives you a feeling for what it will be, I hope, off the Long Island shore.”

The collaborative includes the Long Island Power Authority, Con Edison, the New York Power Authority, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.

A request for information in July yielded about 30 responses from developers, according to the collaborative.  The 2010 request for proposals will seek a private development company who can build the project and secure a power purchase agreement to sell the power.